Comments made by Monty

About 74 people were at the closing rally at 6 pm on Monday night. We all are dedicated to the "long haul", to working no matter how long it takes to get real universal public health care in this country. We oppose the continued existence of a for-profit health insurance industry.

Reuters reported on September 17, 2009, that a Harvard study links 45,000 American deaths in 2007 alone, to lack of health insurance. Over a ten year period, about HALF A MILLION Americans have died due to lack of health insurance. This is an humanitarian crisis.

The 45-hour candlelight vigil symbolized the 45,000 deaths linked to our current health care system dominated by insurance companies, and the 45 million Americans who have no health insurance.

As former State Senator Sheila Kuehl, an ardent single payer advocate & original author of California’s single payer legislation, has said: “Blue Cross is double cross, Blue Shield is no shield. They have so many gaps in coverage, so many ways in which they're going to deny you insurance, and there's the co-pays, the deductibles, the unaffordable premiums, and as you see, just getting kicked off. Why? Because you used it.”

We demonstrators advocate a single payer (public) system of health care because we are sick and tired of the current insurance controlled system that is corrupting our political democracy and killing many of our most vulnerable citizens.

The demands presented at the sit-in were very simple:

"Blue Shield must immediately cease all spending on lobbying, political ads, and campaign contributions and use that money to pay for all doctor-requested treatment for member patients with life-threatening illnesses. "